With 65 movies from countries as far-ranging as Indonesia and Kazakhstan taking over two of the city's most iconic theaters for five days, the 9th Annual Portland Horror Film Festival transformed Portland, Oregon into a heaven for horror lovers!

When someone thinks of movie festivals, the major players are likely to spring to mind - Cannes, Park City, Los Angeles, London, Toronto. Even smaller cities like Telluride might take place of prominence ahead of Portland, Oregon, which is unfortunate, as the City of Roses has a vibrant, tight knit film community. Portland's horror community is especially vital, with numerous independent theaters and screenings at all manner of venues around the city happening throughout the year. It's a friendly, welcoming community, in spite of the sea of black clothing sporting demonic sigils and vintage gore. The Portland Horror Film Festival is the scene's crown jewel, a Mardi Gras of mayhem, a carnival of carnage. It's one of the best horror film festivals in the United States, maybe even the world, but people just don't know it yet. That's changing, though, as each year the festival's reach and influence grows.

Founded in 2016 by Portland horror mainstays Gwen and Brian Callahan, the Portland Horror Film Festival has grown to become the Pacific Northwest's premier genre film festival. Growing out of the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival, which the Callahans also run, PHFF has grown to a nearly week-long event featuring speakers, discussions panels, after hours parties and, of course, loads of horror films.

The 9th nnual Portland Horror Film Festival, taking place from June 5 to June 9, may have been their biggest year yet. It was certainly one of the best, with passionate, enthusiastic crowds selling out two of Portland's best theaters for five days to see an incredible array of features, shorts, and panels featuring the actors and film-makers.

9th Annual Portland Horror Film Festival: The Premiers

The Premiers were the biggest draw of the festival. Nearly every Feature was some sort of Premier, as were a number of the short films. The festival kicked off with a World Premier, in fact, with Ludvig Gür's deliciously creepy Swedish religious horror, Gudstjänst (English: In the Name of God) opening Wednesday night.

In the Name of God is the story of Theodor (Linus Wahlgren), a devout Swedish priest who begins to struggle with his faith when his wife Felicia (Lisa Wenni) contracts a mysterious illness that threatens to take her life. Meanwhile, Theodor is visited by his former mentor Jonas (Thomas Hanzon), who reveals that he's been chosen to receive "the true priesthood," allowing the priest to perform miracles after sacrificing a sinner.

Theodor makes the impossible choice, miraculously restoring Felicia to full health and making him a latter-day saint to his small parish. The resulting media circus puts Theodor in the public eye, drawing the attention of someone who feels more deserving of the true priesthood, sending the film hurtling towards its bloodthirsty conclusion. It's not every day that such a chilly, restrained Scandinavian horror movie ends with a crucifixion.

Wednesday night's second feature was also a Premier, albeit a Pacific Northwestern one. The Complex Forms, directed by Fabio D’Orta, was one of the festival's most visually striking and beautiful films. Shot in crisp, immaculate black-and-white, The Complex Forms is an arthouse late-capitalist parable about three men who rent out their bodies to be inhabited by monolithic spider-like beings. Surreal, subjective, poetic, and upsetting, The Complex Forms is an example of uncompromising avant-garde horror's ability to critique modern life and society without ever climbing up on a soapbox.

Thursday night's Feature and Premier was one of the festival's highlights, an attitude shared by many as The Invisible Raptor was awarded the Audience Choice festival. A horror/comedy, The Invisible Raptor is a warm, loving tribute to '80s and '90s Steven Spielberg that asks the very important question - what if they recreated a velociraptor and it was invisible? Entirely unhinged and packed full of easter eggs, The Invisible Raptor in no way relies on gimmicks or trainspotting to deliver. Instead, stellar performances, incredible on-screen chemistry, a clear love of practical effects and a plucky, can-do DIY spirit makes The Invisible Raptor better than movies with 10x its budget. A Q&A with co-writers Johnny Wickham and Mike Capes also offered a goldmine of practical film-making advice, such as if you ever need help securing a film location, just ask John Stamos. 

The last night at the Hollywood Theater also featured a Premier with the film-makers in attendance. Ghost Game, directed by Jill Gevargizian (who burst onto the scene with her impressive first feature The Stylist, 2022), is an eerie home invasion flick that takes a left turn, unexpectedly going off the rails on a rocket sled with a third act that will have you checking the locks before going to bed.

Friday night's final feature was the real star of the show, however. Filmed right here in Portland, Oregon on glorious VHS, Hiding Henry was another home invasion film and horror/comedy transcending its humble origins thanks to some incredibly committed performances. It tells the story of Henry (Christof Whiteman), the world's greatest hide and seek player. He's so good, in fact, that he vanishes without a trace for over 30 years. It only comes to light that there may be some validity to some of the local legends that Hiding Henry may, in fact, still be inside his childhood home when someone moves into the (supposedly) abandoned house.

Add in an unbelievably charming dog named Darby who may or may not be the Devil and a hilarious, insightful Q&A following the film and you've got a fantastic conclusion to the Hollywood Theater portion of the Portland Horror Film Festival, making it more than worth than staying out until nearly 1 A.M.

The first day at the Clinton Street Theater - Portland's oldest movie theater - featured not one, not two, but three Premiers. The first, Did I?, directed by Sarah Nice, is a thoughtful, nuanced, head swirling look at mental health and trauma by looking at the sometimes-controversial Dissociative Identity Disorder. This was followed by an equally-excellent queer horror/comedy/whodunnit?, Carnage for Christmas, about a trans woman murder mystery podcaster who returns to her small Australian hometown for Christmas only to get sucked into a local legend.

Saturday night's final feature - making its Portland debut - felt like a main event and a proper festival moment. Rachel Kempf & Nick Toti's It Doesn't Get Any Better Than This, which has been generating buzz on the indie film festival circuit for the past several years, can only be seen in theaters. The directors have no intention of ever making it available digitally - or even commercially. If you want to see this curious, sometimes meandering, ultimately very spooky found footage feature about a couple who buy a murder house that turns out to be a portal to some nether dimension, you've got to organize a live screening through the film-makers.

While some may find the restrictions gimmicky or exclusive - a modern-day equivalent of Alfred Hitchcock barring the doors to Psycho after the credits started to roll - there's no denying the power and effectiveness of watching It Doesn't Get Any Better Than This in a dark room with 100 other horror lovers. At home, you might be tempted to scroll your phone, check your email, pause the film to go get snacks, or any other of 101 distractions, thus dissipating the otherworldly dread the film gathers as it goes along.

Stepping out into a quiet, eerily dark SE Portland after the film let out made for one of the most unsettling, surreal moments of the entire festival, as if you'd also been sucked into the Hellmouth. Although it won't be for everybody, It Doesn't Get Any Better Than This exceeds its hype thanks to an avant-garde lo-fi vision, uncompromising structure, and dedicated performances from its cast. If you ever needed an example of how horror festivals are so much more than sitting around and watching a bunch of movies, It Doesn't Get Any Better Than This is it.

The 9th Annual Portland Horror Film Fest concluded with two final U.S. Premiers at Clinton Street Theater. The first, Road to the Mouth of Hell - a modern-day giallo out of Brazil - may have been one of the festival's most extreme offerings - in terms of extreme violence and gore, that is.

PHFF's final feature offered the rare opportunity to see a horror movie from Kazakhstan. Dastur is the story of Bolat (Ermek Shynbolatov) and Diana (Nuray Zhetkergen). Bolat is a bad young man in a small village in Kazakhstan who is sheltered from the consequences of his actions by his father, Nursultan Kopzhasarovich (Aldabek Shalbayev), a wealthy and influential farmer. He's even able to protect Bolat when he sexually assaults Diana, a young woman who recently graduated from High School, by arranging a marriage. Things immediately get dark when it becomes obvious there's something wrong with Diana, who had attempted to take her own life after the wedding. First Bolat's mother (Nurzhan Beksultanova) and then Nursultan begin to suspect Diana may be possessed after a series of sinister signs begin to occur. Dastur climaxes with a uniquely Islamic take on classic possession movie tropes.

The 9th Annual Portland Horror Film Festival: The Shorts

The features weren't the only Premiers happening, though, nor were they anywhere close to the only draw to the festival. Portland Horror Film Festival is as known for their short movies as their features, with multiple short blocks as well as introductions before the feature-length films. Each year, short movies are some of the festival's strongest, most innovative, imaginative, and challenging entries. This year was no exception, with over 60 short films across eight short program blocks.

As with the features, the shorts covered an impressive range of styles and tones. Horror/comedies were well-represented, like The Gourd, The Brad, and the Ghostly by Jillian Terwedo-Malsbury which won the award for best horror/comedy. The Gourd, The Brad, and the Ghostly tells a simple, surreal, and hilarious story of a young man with a guilty conscience taking an elevator ride after accidentally knocking a jack o' lantern out of his high-rise window. The Flacalta Effect is a satirical Black horror short about a zombie apocalypse caused by a weight loss drug. MLM illustrates some of the horrors of multi-level marketing schemes - like someone's husband's penis being transformed into a bluebird when they fail to meet quota. It also features a wonderful role from horror legend Barbara Crampton.

Michael Granbery's stop-motion fairytale, Les Bêtes, may have been one of the festival's most poignant entries as well as one of the most beautiful. Filmed over the span of four years, Granbery transformed everyday objects into a legion of fantastical creatures to be abused by a horde of heartless hyper-capitalists. It's like the Marquise de Sade as visualized by The Brothers Quay. It's one of the finest examples of the fearlessness of the festival's programming as well as the incredible lengths the film-makers will go to realize their vision.

Another of the festival's most beautiful and visually striking movies, Juggernaut may also have been one of the festival's most ambitious films despite being only 20 minutes long. The fest's lone dark fantasy, this short Italian film - directed by Daniele Ricci & Emanuele Ricci - follows a knight as he drags a body on a sled through the mountains in search of resurrection.  It more than earned its Cinematography award, with production values somewhere between Peter Jackson and Robert Eggers. It'll be fascinating to see what the filmmakers get into next.

Some of the shorts were among the festival's most unsettling, affecting works. The fourth shorts block, on Saturday Evening, had a strong feminist theme, with five out of the seven works illustrating female anxiety and rage from all over the world. Good Girls Get Fed was one of the festival's most genuinely upsetting works, cutting uncomfortably close to the bone with its objectification and dehumanization. The film's final moments, when it becomes obvious the subjugation isn't just the work of a lone psychopath but is instead a society-wide epidemic, will haunt you for days, making the political personal in a way that's impossible to ignore.

The Portland Horror Film Festival is so much more than simply watching a bunch of horror movies with fellow horror lovers. With panels and Q&As following nearly every screening, featuring everyone from actors to screenwriters to directors of photography and cinematographers, PHFF is as much film school and indie film-making boot camp as it is a series of screenings. Not only were Q&As like the one following The Invisible Raptor hilariously entertaining, they also served as Practical Effects 102, telling how they literally screwed co-writer Mike Capes shoes to the ground to pull off a complicated truck shot.

PHFF is an indie horror film festival done right. They're doing an exceptional job showcasing women in horror, with nearly half of the festival's entries coming from women film-makers, many touching on important women's issues. There's a strong focus on international horror, as well, helping to shed light on the larger global horror community.

Horror looks at issues that may be painful and unpleasant but are all that much more important because of it. Films Good Girls Get Fed or Come Back Haunted drive home women's issues like an iron spike. Films like Lady Parts, directed by Ariel McCleese, transform the confusion of female adolescence and queer sexuality into a surreal body horror parable while Apotemnofilia makes the relentless inescapability of body dysmorphia especially grim and poignant with its blood-chilling images of self-atomization. PHFF never becomes too grim, heavy, or unbearable, though, with liberal spoonfuls of horror/comedy sugar to help wash down the arsenic. You're left invigorated, amped up about social issues and the power and potential of film-making, which is well worth a few sleepless nights. It just keeps getting better, year after year. If you're in or around the Pacific Northwest next summer, do yourself a favor and experience one of the United States' best horror communities for yourself. If you're not, the streaming version is the next best thing. If you're a fan of indie horror, the Portland Horror Film Festival is not to be missed. 

Volume 28, Issue 6 / June 2024 Festival Reports   horror   independent film   oregon   portland   short films